hal wirths

Police departments that already were prohibited from having ticket or arrest quotas in New Jersey now cannot use such data to evaluate an officer’s job performance, under a state law enacted on Thursday.

Just one Republican voted for the resolution: Sen. Chris Brown (R-Atlantic). Other Republicans either voted no, voted to abstain, or didn’t vote.

Assemblyman Hal Wirths called the bill “a charade” and was among a long line of Republicans who criticized the process for considering it, which skipped committee hearings where the public could have its say.

“As we’ve been saying, we’ve been living under a dictatorship for almost 15 months now, and it’s time for King Phil to get off the throne and let the legislators get back to work,” said Assemblyman Hal Wirths, R-Sussex.

State officials anticipate adding hundreds of millions of dollars to the state’s revenue forecast, but the good news for the budget will have to wait a few weeks because the tax filing deadline had been delayed to Monday, a month later than usual.

The money can be used to support public health expenditures; address the economic impacts of the pandemic; replace lost public sector revenue; provide premium pay for essential workers; and invest in water, sewer and broadband infrastructure, among other uses.

More than 8,000 COVID deaths are linked to nursing homes in New Jersey. Health commissioner says the directives were clear and were understood by most.

MVC locations have been closed a combined 1,291 agency days since reopening last July, equaling a 12% closure rate. Since Oct. 1, agencies have been closed due to COVID more than 16% of the time.

Assemblywoman Verlina Reynolds Jackson, D-Mercer, said police could respond to calls for help or even do a walk-through, just not be sitting inside polling locations the whole day.

The deadline to enact a balanced spending plan is in five weeks, suggesting a period of intense negotiations and hearings are on Trenton's horizon.